Workers Have Spoken

66 percent of public sector workers voting on the Croke Park 2 proposals rejected the deal. Of the 20 unions participating in the ballot, 14 rejected the deal and 5 accepted (we don’t have information on the vote from Veterinary Ireland). The result was overwhelming and conclusive.

There is one argument going around that says if four percent of public sector workers in SIPTU had switched from rejection to acceptance, then Croke Park 2 would have passed.

However, this overlooks the fact that two-thirds of public sector workers rejected the deal. A small change in any particular union would make no difference in the overall vote.

Below we break down the results proportionately. For instance, under the bloc-card system, if 60 percent of workers in a union vote to accept the deal, then 100 percent of the card votes are cast for acceptance. However, this doesn’t reflect the vote.

If we break down the result proportionately, we get an accurate reflection of how public sector workers voted.

As seen, 66 percent – two-third – rejected this deal. This goes beyond ‘tweaking’ a new deal. This is about a fundamental rejection of the Government’s austerity and wage-cutting programme.

Now is the time for all trade unions – public and private – to put forward a progressive alternative to austerity – an alternative which benefits all people: the unemployed, those on social protection, the low-paid, households struggling with debt an deprivation, and domestic business suffering from lack of demand.

And with two-thirds of public sector workers rejecting the austerity deal, we have a strong foundation to start from.

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